Parity for Mental Health

The struggle for coverage by insurers should ease under Obamacare

Despite its troubled debut, the Affordable Care Act will attempt to correct a long-term bias against patients suffering from mental illness. The act includes requirements for mental health parity among insurers so that mental illness is treated on the same terms as any other illness. Paul Summergrad, the Dr. Frances S. Arkin Professor and Chair of Psychiatry at Tufts and president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association, knows the history well, and celebrated the change in a recent interview with USA Today.Fair coverage is now guaranteed for millions of Americans with mental illness.